Lost Tales of Ga'Hoole

quiet.
    “You are right,” Tarn began. “This part of the desert is ours. We have worked tirelessly, excavating day and night. We have built up our forces without anyone knowing. From this hidden fortress we will launch a new assault on the kingdoms. We are on the brink of domination, once again!”
    Cletus and Tavis wilfed. They knew they were on the verge of discovering something terrible.
    Tarn continued. “It is time that we get rid of these desert-dwelling lowlifes for good! The Tytonic Union of Pure Ones has risen once again!”
    Cheers erupted from all the owls in the burrow. Now, instead of dozens, it sounded like there were hundreds of owls.
    “Should we begin driving out the remaining desert dwellers?” an owl asked.
    “No!” Tarn answered definitively. “We cannot allow them to escape and tell other owls of our presence here. General Mam has ordered us to remain hidden. The rest of the owl world must not know that we have amassed our forces here. We still need time to prepare, per General Mam’s instructions.”
    “Then, does that mean…”
    Before the owl could finish asking his question, Tarn answered it. “Kill them, and take their burrows, just like we did to that old fool who lived here. Exterminate them!” he bellowed.
    The owls in the burrow hooted eagerly. Outside, Tavis and Cletus felt a hollow pull in their gizzards. Hiram!
    “In two nights’ time we will have finished connecting the southern and eastern networks of burrows.” Then Tarn added, “With our tunnels linked we will be able to burst into all the remaining burrows at once. We’ll slaughter these yokels and the desert will be ours. I want all squads in position the moment the tunnels are complete! We’ll strike at dawn two days hence!”
    Cletus had to keep Tavis from storming into the burrow then and there.
    “Try to kill me ? That bad-butt, skinny-legged, lousy owl wants to kill me ? Well, I’d like to see him try! Why, I could just tear that owl wing from wing!” Tavis’s anger was brimming. He couldn’t believe what he had heard and seen. He and Cletus snuck their way to another burrow opening near Hiram’s old home and looked in. They saw what must have been hundreds of owls—mostly Barn Owls, some Sooty Owls, Masked Owls, and a few Burrowing Owls—gathered in a freshly excavated chamber. Tunnel mouths pocked the edges leading to what had to be a vast network of burrows. The Pure Ones—that loathsome lot was here , near his home, AGAIN!
    Cletus tried to calm his brother down. He practically had to wrestle Tavis away from the burrow. He was just as furious as his brother, but he knew that rage would do them no good now. The brothers flew toward their burrow. Something had to be done.
    “Think, Tavis, think! We can’t just go attacking without a plan,” he said. “We have more than ourselves to think about. They were talking about killing every owl who lives here! Think of the hatchlings, not to mention the eggs. Think of Saul and Trixie.”
    Cletus knew that, as big and powerful as they were, he and Tavis were only two owls against hundreds. Besides, where would that leave the rest of the desert dwellers? Most of them were Burrowing Owls who lived peaceful lives. Like Hiram, Glaux bless his scroom, many of them were old and weak. Others were mere hatchlings who had yet to take their first flight. They could never defend themselves against the forces of the Pure Ones. Cletus knew that he and Tavis would have to use their brains instead of talons in this situation. He was sure that, deep down, Tavis knew it, too.
    When they reached their hollow, Tavis had come to his senses. Though the thought of giving Tarn a thrashing was still very much on his mind, he agreed with Cletus that they had to help their fellow desert dwellers. The brothers agreed: They had to get everyone out safely before the Pure Ones began their assault.
    When Tavis was in the right frame of mind, he was a brilliant owl. The plan was his. They had two nights to carry it off. First, he and Cletus would begin a warning relay. The two of them would fly to the southern edge of the Broken Egg. They would tell the owls who lived in the outlying burrows that they must leave their homes immediately. Then those owls would fly or run north to warn two more owls each. Each little group of owls would hop from burrow to burrow, working their way north toward Tavis and Cletus’s burrow. That way, not too many owls would be in the sky or on the